The mystery of the fate of Flight 447 is coming to it's end as the flight recorders start to reveal their secrets.

Air France flight 447 plunged for three-and-a-half minutes before crashing into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board. The first evidence from the black box flight recorder says the Airbus lost speed and stalled while the captain was resting.

Pierre-Cedric Bonin, flight 447’s junior pilot battled to save the Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight, as the second pilot tried to rouse the captain shortly after the plane had begun its fateful fall in a tropical storm.

According to flight recorder data, the jets nose was angled higher, a position the aircraft maintained until its final impact, after the pilots received inconsistent speed readings. Aviation experts have questioned why the pilot kept giving nose-up inputs when the plane was in a stall?

David Robert, 37, the second pilot, had begun calling for the captain after the autopilot cut out four hours after take-off. Captain Marc Dubois returned 90 seconds later, but never retook control of the plane – leaving the flying to his co-pilots.